Thread regarding State Farm Insurance layoffs

@Sorta new guy: I sympathize with you too.

I sympathize with just about everyone who was run through the wringer of CDE. I'm looking forward to working someplace else. There is no such thing as a perfect job, but it's definitely time for me to find a change.

Don't forget about those BAs who hired directly into ISD from the outside not knowing the mess that SF had created. I came into SF with a background in consulting and software deployment and have been put in the most duplicative work environment I've ever witnessed. I regret it greatly.

I for one have been very critical of ISD. But on the flip side, I've also praised the quality of those whom State Farm used to employ to do business requirements, and I've acknowledged multiple times that State Farm projects still need business analysis.

CDE seems to have totally screwed up the requirements analysis process in many areas of the organization. I know it has in the area where I work. I went from working with some of the best BA's I've ever worked (pre-CDE) to working with people who flat-out refuse to do any requirements modeling work at all (post-CDE) and who don't even appear to understand the processes they've been put in charge of.

I've also mentioned a few times (and it bears repeating) that State Farm Executive Leadership has rendered the business analysis space largely ineffective, and instead of fixing it (which they desperately need to do), they appear poised to completely obliterate it.

I will not be here to deal with the aftermath. But I can tell you that since CDE, I have done multiple projects with zero business requirements, as crazy as that sounds (and it DOES sound crazy, because it IS crazy). So the groundwork for more defective projects has already been laid.

I am very sympathetic to our former BAs who got caught up in all this madness. You all deserved a lot better than what the company has handed you.

ISD folks came from everywhere. Not all had systems experience. Unfortunately, when ISD first started it was felt that is where you were moved when you technically needed laid off orcould do the least damage.

I'm an ISD business analyst. I like many of my peers were voluntold to work on CDE and were kidnapped into the new department called ISD. I'm a former Systems BA but also worked in 2 operations centers and Corp. Many people have posted on this blog that ISD analysts don't have any skills and should be eliminated. Be careful folks. You may know how to code but you need people to create and communicate requirements for you. Many others like me have business expertise that will be hard to replace.

It would have been smarter to simply involuntarily release ALL of ISD. 1500 cut off the top leaving those who actually do the work

Totally agree with the poster who mentioned ISD expects to be the new managers over those who are systems BAs. These ISD mgrs and BAs have no skills at all other than saying they want something and giving a deadline. They have no clue or interest in solving technical or process problems that keep systems ftom getting things done. But with so many excellent systems mgrs leaving who tried to solve problems it will be sad. Not all mgrs were coasting just because they were older. Systems number 1 technical barrier is the time wasted on getting and maintaining its horrible test emvironments which wastes hundreds of hours of productivity per week. The test area has no interest in fixing this as it woukd reduce their staffing.

Did they announce manager cuts and severance packages?

State Farm people please... there is life after State Farm. Take your talents elsewhere.

All of our competitors are out giving their employees “extra” bonuses and here we sit awaiting a lottery chance of getting a pink slip. No applause State Farm. No applause.

Most of the IT Archs and Solution Arch skillset and work was subpar even comparing to a business analyst. They could not code a line, could not model simple requirements forget about modeling architecture.

Not happy that this is happening but all those promotions and movements which happened due to networking during the 2011 - 2014 ( CDE days) are coming to bite the asses of these ARCHITECTS.

and huh, ISD BA, becoming bosses of the folks in the system when they don't even know what that particular system does. Babbling and bossing does not mean you are the best, you were just hiding your lack of skills and pissing off everyone. Anyways, still have time, pick some Agile Role, learn SQL and related stuff and survive.

This change is too fast for anyone, this could have done slowly and in a better way.

Are the Systems people upset and causing havoc? There are days in claims our system has been down for an entire day.

Edit. Our systems have been down this afternoon.

Heard people were stuck in elevator in a hub because servers were down. ????.

Ok our systems have been this afternoon. Which one of you pulled the switch?

IT Analyst Architecture was basically collapsed into Solution Architect roles, so I’d assume it’s seen as one large pool of talent.

Cliff notes of my day.....

My leadership shared 19 role/skill combos that are overstaffed.

Options for impacted are reskilled or reductions.

SF exec shared SF isnt paying for reskilling!!!

My team is made up of overstaffed and understaffed roles.

Sounds like analyst reductions are likely coming in March

The various types of architects. Those that can, who came up coding. Those who talked their way through. Those that can, who are rarely found at Medici’s. Those with chapped lips.

Jump you poor bastards. Run, get some help! Get those skills out on linkIn and shake thaMoneyMakah.

Also, to be clear, not every "reduced" role was non-technical, or at least not clearly so.

For example, IT-analyst Architecture was listed as a role for reduction. Unfortunately, that role was not delineated with regard to the various types of architects, which include Business, App, Data, and Tech.

I would expect the business archs to be the most endangered, but that's merely speculation on my part. It could also be that App, Data, and Tech arch will be absorbed by senior developers or by Lead IT Architects. I would expect the former rather than the latter, as quite honestly I don't know too many ITA's who can actually do app, data or tech architecture work.

It would not surprise me one bit to see all the architecture work absorbed by development teams.

Again, I would expect more concrete information in March.

Thanks for posting!